Does your mother know you go around calling yourself that?…
[Video][Myspace]
[6.21]
Briony Edwards: Snotty, trashy and obnoxious: Jay proves that (at least one of) the Reatards are still capable of pulling off bratty sing-along punk with applomb. Slightly less ferocious than some of his previous efforts, but the song doesn’t suffer from this – and it’s still catchy as ever.
[7]
Chuck Eddy: Dude made a far better Adverts than he does a Verlaines. Strangely, though, this starts out more like the former. Still a sellout though – – especially when it gets to the “all is lost there is no hope” emo crap. Can we please all agree he should have packed it in at at the end of 2007, before he made all those wimp-ass Matador singles, and spare ourselves his next 20 years?
[7]
Dan MacRae: If you masturbate furiously to Rhino’s Poptopia compilations, this should be right up your alley.
[8]
Spencer Ackerman: It’s like Jay Reatard writes music just for me: bleak, hyper, poppy, simple. Good confection.
[8]
Alex Ostroff: Nasal self-loathing whine buried low in the mix below persistently chugging guitar chords, propulsive drums and what sounds like a double-time version of the piano track from “Closing Time”. I can’t remember the last time a song reviewed here knocked me over right out the gate, and I remain baffled that I’ve somehow avoided hearing him until this very moment, but I feel like I’ve just been punched in the stomach and trampled by a herd of wildebeests and possibly spit on. It feels good.
[9]
Melissa Bradshaw: Is this, like, Green Day for 5 year olds? I am not getting the irony.
[2]
Ian Mathers: The way his voice flips from adenoidal to fake-British is really, really annoying, and despite his garage/punk reputation the arrangement is neither energetic nor primally powerful enough to make up for it. Basically, this sounds like Supergrass for Dummies.
[5]
Martin Skidmore: Exciting, cutting edge sounds – if this were 1977. His punk pop has an appealingly rough and frenetic quality, but while he is copying the sound of my youth, this really isn’t significantly less retrogressive and lacking in imagination than bands that want to sound like the Beatles – 32 or 42 years, who cares? Still, some points for energy and an attempt at a fun chorus, and a likeably desperate voice.
[5]
Michaelangelo Matos: I wonder how I would have felt about Reatard if I’d first heard him years ago. I’m guessing the same way I do now: pretty diverting for a while (I like both the singles comps he put out last year well enough) but too basically samey to attend to full-time. Or maybe it’s just this song, which sounds like a formula Jay Reatard record.
[5]
Anthony Miccio: Despite repeated basks in the rush of Reatard’s Singles 06-07 compilation, I’ve never been inspired to learn the names of individual songs – it ain’t The Ramones unless you write a “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The chorus repetition here suggests he wants to earn his rising profile, but the hooks still don’t dig in so much as wash over.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: A nice descending melody in the verses underpins the tune’s compact guitar racket, but even that’s the kind of joyous noise predecessors like the Buzzcocks or the Undertones were capable of producing in their sleep. Those bands understood there was very little difference between punk and pop; considering the distinct dearth of memorable hooks here, Reatard may need more instruction on that relationship.
[5]
Alfred Soto: The hook and Reatard’s nervous aggression are Buzzcocks-worthy — the extended organ solo reminds me of solo Pete Shelley actually — and I can easily imagine some enterprising teen using this as a gateway drug to deeper highs.
[7]
Doug Robertson: I have whole albums of stuff that sounds like this, you probably do too, but this song isn’t for us. It’s for those that don’t and for whom this will sound fantastically fresh and exciting, like the sound of raw rebellion, twisted into a digital form and released onto an unsuspecting world. I might have heard it done before, but I’m jealous of those who are discovering it for the first time and who feel the thrill of the new and the excitement of finding someone who they feel speaks for them and for them alone. Damned kids.
[6]
Iain Mew: Neat retro stylings, a strong chorus and well controlled bursts of energy are all well and good. There’s only so positive I can be, though, when your song is 2:22 and I’m still wishing it was shorter.
[6]